Pointers June 2016

What Has Changed Since 1985?
There is a tradition of older people looking back over their lives and noting how so many aspects of life have deteriorated. ‘What is the world coming to?’ is a complaint as old as humanity. Change creeps up on us and we find it hard to cope, and sometimes it is hard to see any good in it. It is now my turn to ‘complain’. But I will use some survey figures to correct and challenge my feelings. The book CRA has just released, Charting the Faith of Australians (2016), looks at the momentous changes that have occurred since World War II. This article will take a more limited period: from the beginning of the CRA until now.

Children’s Prayer: Multi-faith PerspectivesThis paper provides a summary of doctoral research undertaken by Vivienne Mountain through the Australian Catholic University. Her thesis has been re-worked and published by the CRA as Children’s Prayer: Multi-faith Perspectives.

The Frontline of Interfaith Dialogue: Marriages between Muslims and ChristiansOver recent decades, tensions have risen between Christians and Muslims across the globe. In Western countries, Muslims have increasingly been seen as potential threats to social security. In Muslim countries, there has been increasing suspicion of Christians trying to dominate the world and inhibit the freedom of Muslims to practise their faith as they see appropriate. At the forefront of this tension are those who have entered marriages that cross the boundaries between the two religions. Rev Dr Helen Richmond, a lecturer at Nungylinga College and past director in interfaith relations for the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, acknowledges this context and looks at its impact on marriages between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia and Australia in a recent book, Blessed and Called to be a Blessing.Commitment, Nominalism and ‘No Religion’Between the 2001 and 2011 Australian censuses, it is estimated that approximately 580,000 people ceased to identify with a Christian denomination (Hughes, 2012, pp. 3-9). However, while the Census can tell us about change in religious identification, it does not tell us anything about changes in patterns of peoples’ religious activities or religious beliefs. Earlier this year, the Christian Research Association was commissioned to conduct a national
survey on the impact of religion as it influenced the behaviour and actions of Australian individuals. It is known as the SEIROS (Study of the Economic Impact of Religion on Society) survey. The survey covered a number of topics such as volunteering, informal contributions to society, influences when growing up, as well as peoples’ involvement in religious activities and their attitudes and beliefs. More than 7,700 people completed the survey, giving us the fullest picture of religious faith in Australia since The Australian Community Survey in 1998.